Kendrick Perkins doubles down on surprising 'leader' take after Kevin Durant call out

As far as regular season record is concerned, the Oklahoma City Thunder are undoubtedly the best team in the Western Conference. After all, they are the top seed in the loaded West with a 40-9 record.

Thanks to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and co., the Thunder are essentially out of their rebuilding phase and one of the top contenders for the 2025 NBA Championship.

It's not the first time that the Thunder have managed to build a young roster capable of leading the organization to an NBA title. A decade or so ago, OKC was home to Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden.

There were a few veteran players on the team as well, including 2008 NBA champion Kendrick Perkins. Speaking of Big Perk, he recently made headlines for claiming that he was the leader of that version of the Thunder.

Upon learning about the statement, Durant found it comical and labeled it 'crazy.' Despite that, Perkins doubled down on his seemingly atrocious take via NBA insider Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson.

“I was the glue. KD knows. That was him trolling. He knows what the real was. I forced everybody to f*** with everybody. When I got in there, I made sure that everyone was on the same page," Perkins said. "I made sure we were all a unit. Ask Troy Weaver, Sam Presti, you can even ask Scott Brooks. KD knows!”

Durant is no stranger to trolling analysts on X (formerly known as Twitter) and he has had a couple of back-and-forths with Perkins in the past as well.

Keeping that in mind, Perkins is confident that the Slim Reaper was trolling when he called his take crazy, but only KD can tell how much truth is behind that statement.

Kendrick Perkins doubles down on surprising 'leader' take after Kevin Durant mocks ESPN analyst

By Aikansh Chaudhary | Feb 7, 2025